CHAPTER III
FREQUENCY OF INSANITY.

WHATEVER may be thought of the actual frequency of insanity in proportion to population, there can be no question but that it is a disease from which no age, sex, class, or profession in life can claim exemption, and that nowhere does it fail to make itself recognized as the great leveller of all the artificial distinctions of society. The number of insane persons in different communities, if we judge by the returns of the official census reports, varies very widely. It has been shown, however, that there are many innacuracies in these statements that heretofore they could not be relied on, and only in a few instances has it been possible to learn, with a tolerable degree of certainty, the ratio of persons who are insane in proportion to the whole number of inhabitants. The most reliable authorities in this country make the proportion to vary as much as from one in every thousand, to what is more probable, one to every five hundred of the entire number of the community. The estimate of one to every five hundred inhabitants, I have reason to believe, will not be an excessive allowance for the whole country. This statement is sufficient to give some idea of the prevalence of the disease, and the magnitude of the task of caring for all the cases that require attention. Nothing less than a provision for all, is the task of every State. There is no justification for a State providing accomodations for one portion of its insane, and leaving the rest uncared for.